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Government of Wales Bill

Briefly, we do not support this amendment, although I know that the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay of Llandaff, does a tremendous amount of good work, and I can see the virtues of the proposal for an all-Wales constituency. However, as the noble Lord, Lord Norton of Louth, said, there are a number of practical drawbacks. One of them, which the noble Lord pointed out, was the power of the political parties to nominate the lists. One could see a situation where Members were perhaps elected for the whole of Wales, but from just one part of Wales. They might predominate. That is perhaps the worst possible outcome, but it could happen. Although it is a good thing to have independents elected—it has been pointed out that there are some independents in the Assembly—there is a considerable downside to this proposal. We do not support this amendment.